The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1887-09-17
STARTLING FACTS.
Physical Deterioration Among the Lowe
Glasses of EurOue.

Physical Deterioration Among the Lower
Glasses of Europe.
Sir Thomas Crawford recently de-
livered an address Mt the Congress of
the British Medical Association in Dub
lin. Referring to the boasts of the
champions Of sanitary science rs to the
prolongation of life, which has been
secured through improved sanitary ar
rangemcts, he said there was evidence
of perceptiblc deterioration or degrade
tion of life in the lower order of people.
An analysis of the results from 3S,324
examinations of men made by army
surgeons from 1860 to 1864 inclusive,
showed that during these years, in
which the number of men required for
the army averaged G, 465, and permitted
therefore q strictcr investigation of
physical fitness both by recruiters and
surgeons, the reflections from all causes
were only 371.67 per 1000, while out of
132, ,563 men examined between 1882
and 1886 inclusive, the reflections were
4l5.S per 1000. A careful examine
ton of those tables led to the Inference
that the lower class, from whom the re-
cruits for the army are chiefly taken,
nre of an inferior physique now to what
they were twenty-five years ago. The
recruits drawn from town-bred popula-
tions gave by far the larger proper
tion of reflections; while the causes of
rejection usually indicated decidedly
inferior physique. The reflections
from defective vision and diseases of
eye were nearly AZ per 1000, exclusive
OF all those whose defects of vision
were so obvious as to attract the notice
of the recruiter and who would thus
be excluded. There was peculiar
form of ophthalmia which, wherever
it was met with, whether in military
or civil life, was mainly caused by the
vitiated atmosphere arising from over
crowding. Of late years that scourge
had been practically banished by the
sanitary improvements that have been
introduced into barracks. 1t was to
his mind the most striking illustration
| of what such measures could accom-
plish, and there was no longer any
excuse for the existence of the disease,
as with the blind so with the insane.
What were the causes which produced
the very large class of sufferers in
| cluded under this head? He might
be told these causes were moral, lying
beyond the proper sphere of the sani.
tary officer; but was it really SOP They
must look to improved personal hy'
giene, especially during the training o1
the young, if they desired these classe;
of bread-winners so reared that they
might enter upon the struggles of life
both mentally and physically fit; and il
that be so with the bread-winners, why
not still more necessary in regard tt
the genesis of the future race? The
habits of the people, too, had very
marked effect upon the development o
deterioration of the species. Look u
the effects of physical culture as seer
in the upper and middle classes of Eng
land, at the present time, where ever,
well-regulated school has its gym
nasium, every village its cricket
ground, and every house its lawn-ten
mis- courts, and compare the young mel
and women to be seen there with tn
dwarfed specimens of humanity in tn
overcrowded slums of the large towns
The result of such contrast will con
vince the most skeptical not only @
the value but also of the necessity @
educating public opinion on this i'm
portant subject. James Gazette.